Arlana
Lady Arlana is an Unseelie Sidhe Grump (barely) of House Ailil in the Kingdom of Willows. Overview With her freehold of Silverwood in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, Lady Arlana is one of the few landed Ailil in Concordia. Often found with a longhaired black cat, she appears to be in her mid-twenties, with blue-black hair and icy green eyes, but she has lived several decades more than her mortal seeming indicates as she only leaves her freehold when necessary. She is fond of wearing black, opalescent voile. A Tale of Honor In the story opening the section on House Ailil in The Book of Houses 2, she is fostering a young sidhe named Calinthe. She gives her understanding of honor when confronted with her own honorable acts by Sir Gannon, a Dougal knight inadvertently the guest of her freehold. "In the spirit of mutual hospitality, I will speak my mind openly for your benefit. By it's own actions, the Seelie Court has proven the truth of our philosophy of honor. The actions taken during the Accordance War by the armies of Gwydion, Fiona, Dougal, Eiluned, and, I suspect, Liam, did not fall comfortably within my definition of honorable behavior. Certainly honor had no place in the meeting hall on the Night of Iron Knives." She paused. "The fact that after 30 years, the Seelie Court still claims absolute sovereignty over the fae in Concordia also bespeaks a somewhat loose interpretation of the concept of honor, but I could spend most of the evening elaborating on that fundamental betrayal of what you call honor. I suppose I shall simply say that we prefer to claim that honor is a lie because we have so often seen the truth of out words played out upon the grand stage of politics." After the events of Sir Gannon's time in her freehold, she closed up her freehold and prepared to leave for an extended stay in Hibernia. Garsen and Lochlan would remain behind to tend the Balefire in the hopes that the Parliament of Dreams would allow them to retain possession or, at least, permission to reside in the now unclaimed freehold. Her one regret was that she would not see the looks on their faces when they realized how Declan had played them for fools. Calinthe expressed her confusion. Arlana then revealed that when Declan arrived, he broke the seal of the message Gannon carried. After reading it, he changed one name. The original summons was for Arlana, not the count. Apparently, word of Arlana's time deeper in the Kingdom of Willows before David Ardry's disappearance had leaked out and they feared the worst. Declan's actions bought her time to depart and gave him an opportunity to increase his knowledge of their adversaries. Calinthe then confided wistfully that she liked Sir Gannon, then asked if Arlana did in fact have anything to do with Ardry's disappearance. Arlana only shook her head. "The truth doesn't matter. Let them wonder." References # CTD. Pour L'Amour et Liberte: The Book of Houses 2, pp. 5-16. Category:Unseelie (CTD) Category:Sidhe (CTD) Category:Grumps (CTD) Category:House Ailil (CTD)